This invention relates to machines for texturing textile yarns or threads, and more particularly, to an improved protective shield or guard for such machines which have intermeshing closely-spaced ceramic discs rotated at very high speed.
Certain types of yarn texturing machines are provided with a pair of parallel spindles. On each spindle is a stack of axially spaced ceramic discs. The discs on one spindle intermesh with the discs on the other spindle but when in proper adjustment the discs on one spindle, though closely spaced from those on the other spindle, do not touch the latter. The spindles are rotated at very high rpm's, e.g., 10,000 rpm, to impart a false twist to yarn in contact with the peripheries of the discs while being fed parallel to their axes.
One such type of machine presently in use is known as a Barmag machine. This machine has a long bank of pairs of upright spindles having intermeshing ceramic discs stacked thereon. In front of the bank are sliding transparent doors which can be opened to provide access for an operator to properly thread up the machine and to repair or tie broken yarns while most of the spindles continue to rotate.
As mentioned heretofore, the ceramic discs are rotated at very high speeds so that if they are cracked or otherwise damaged they may shatter and fly apart or disintegrate. In such an event, the broken ceramic pieces are hurled away with the speed of a projectile. If the above-described sliding doors are closed on such disintegration, an operator is safe, but if they are open, as when an operator is tying broken yarns, the operator is exposed to a most dangerous hazard. It has been found in practice that such disc disintegration is infrequent and normally will not occur when the discs are in proper adjustment so that the discs on one spindle do not touch those on the adjacent spindle. On the other hand, it has been found that when a disc on one spindle touches one on the other, disintegration very possibly can occur.